New Postmaster in Morgan

Article |
25 September, 2010 - 19:43

Article Date:

25 June, 2010 - 06:00

After the county’s previous postmaster accepted a position in Hooper, Morgan was left without a postmaster for a few months. Dave Schroeder has now filled this vacancy and is the new postmaster for Morgan County
Schroeder was raised in Utah but has lived in many places. He served in the US Air Force doing computer maintenance on the NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) aircraft. After leaving the Air Force, Schroeder worked for Westinghouse.
Schroeder became interested in the work of the post office while one of his family members was employed there. He decided that he also wanted a career with the US Postal Service.
This career began with work as a clerk at the Salt Lake main plant. Then, he became a mail carrier. It was while he was a mail carrier that he met his wife, Gaylene. Later, he became a finance supervisor for the post office.
His career with the post office later took him to another state when he accepted a position in Los Angeles. He became a criminal analyst for the Postal Inspection Service, Federal Law Enforcement.
Schroeder’s job there was to identify individuals who were involved in criminal activity involving the postal service. This included criminal activities involving drugs, fraud, identity theft, and other crimes.
If a criminal’s financial gains from illegal activity were used to purchase items, he was involved in the asset forfeiture. On Schroeder’s last day of work in Los Angeles, he wrote a federal warrant to seize more than seven million dollars in assets, including a three hundred thousand dollar automobile.
Schroeder describes that job as very interesting work, but he wanted to be near his family and to enjoy the many outdoor recreation areas of Utah. So, he later returned to the State of Utah. He believes that Utah is the best place on earth to enjoy his outdoor hobbies, such as being an avid hiker and climber. On the day of this interview with The Morgan County News, Schroeder had just returned from a trip to Southern Utah where he had been hiking slotted canyons.
Schroeder is currently living in Salt Lake, but he plans to relocate to Morgan. He expressed gratitude towards the warm welcome he has received from the Morgan community.
One of the interesting facts that Schroeder shared about the US Postal Service was that postal carriers gather more than one million pounds of food each year to help those in need. Schroeder also said that with the number of letter carriers that there are out in the community all the time, they have been able to help out in communities when they have seen a need.
In fact, their interaction with the public has resulted in many acts of heroism; from saving individuals in fires to notifying officials when someone has not been gathering their mail as usual. When the officials receive these reports from mail carriers, they can check up on the person and on the situation to confirm that everything is either all right or help the person if needed.
The postmaster also wanted to remind the public that they should be diligent in watching their dogs and not allowing them to run loose. There have been many jokes about mail carriers being chased and bitten by dogs, but it is a very serious problem for mail carriers. Schroeder shared the fact that more than three thousand mail carriers are bitten by dogs each year.
He requested that owners of dogs keep them contained in the home or fenced yards. He also asked that if a dog is leashed, that they are tied with enough distance from the mail box so the carrier can deliver the mail without worrying about what the disposition of the dog might be or about being bitten.
Another way in which the community can help carriers to deliver the mail more efficiently and accurately is to display house numbers more prominently on homes and on mailboxes.
As the new postmaster for Morgan, Schroeder has been assigned to manage a staff of eleven postal workers. That may seem like a small staff but that modestly sized staff will deliver nearly three million pieces of mail this year. That’s a lot of mail to receive, sort, deliver and keep track of in a year.
Thank you to Postmaster Schroeder and to all postal workers for the service they provide to the community…Again, Morgan welcomes the county’s new postmaster, Dave Schroeder…Morgan wishes him a successful and “bite-free” experience here in Morgan County.